Firstly, a large proportion of our packaging is disposable in nature, and all these packaging significantly increase the waste pollution. Now, if only the harm could stop here!

As most of our disposable packaging waste are made from plastics, not only are we generating significant amounts of waste, this waste will linger on for a long, long time – on land, in landfills, in the oceans and rivers, in agricultural soils, polluting many sensitive parts of our ecosystem for a long, long time to come.

Now how can you and I be more sustainable in our packaging while at the same time not losing our comfort?

Any efforts towards sustainable packaging hence needs to not only reduce the amount of waste we generate from packaging, but also use different, more biodegradable materials for whatever packaging we indeed continue to use.

Simple – there are a number of ways in which you can dramatically reduce your packaging footprint

Sustainable packaging can take different forms:

Doing with less packaging

Doing with packaging the material of which can be reused multiple times

Doing with packaging materials that are eco friendly

Some quick ideas:

User natural material for those products that can easily be packaged in these

If you purchase a good amount of products packed in plastics, perhaps you can try to reuse these to the the extent possible.

BYOB

Purchase a nice metal water bottle – there are some really groovy water bottles available – and then carry it with you to while you travel. While you might not completely do away with plastic bottled water, where clean water is available (airports, theaters, parks etc), you can fill in the water bottles with clean water. It is quite easy to cut down the amount of plastic bottle use by just this method alone.

It is fairly obvious to anyone who spares a moment of thought that using fewer things and/or fewer new things to get the same job done or achieving the same lifestyle comforts mean using fewer natural resources utilized, lesser energy consumed and less waste generated. Besides of course making a positive impact on your purse.

It thus is a great idea to put down a list of activities in which you could optimize resource utilization.

Of course, this is pretty much the concept of 3Rs of environment – Reduce, Reuse & Recycle.

Here’s a simple list I provide – read it tell me why everyone of us can practise most, if not all, the ideas!

BYOB – Bring Your Own Bag – what could be more easy than taking your own bag while you wish to purchase regular items such as grocery, medicine and other retail items!

For parties, if you are looking for disposable foodware, try bio-based (not bioplastic) foodware that are made from bagasse, arecanut leaves, rice husk etc. These cost a bit more than plastic disposables, but not as much as bioplastics.

Reduce printing on paper where not needed

Unless you are working in select sectors, or living in select regions of the world, you can possibly wear the same cloth twice before washing it. Given that there are folks who do not wash their jeans for weeks together, making do with the same cloth for 2 days instead of one, especially if there’s no soiling, is a really habit indeed.

Reusable water bottles

When you shop, shop differently. Look for things that will last – things that are not just durable and well-made, but useful and beautiful enough to please you for a long time.

It makes a heck of a lot of sense for you to spend time to figure out how to minimize their use.

Not only does this save you a packet, it does the world a good lot of good.

A pretty good lot of good.

Read on.

Just by being careful and smart, we can easily do with less energy consumption for our dryers and washing machines.

Just imagine:

If each household reduces the use of dryer and washing machine each by about 15 minutes every day, that would be about 2 kWh per household. If 500 million households could accomplish this reduction, that would be about 1 billion kWh reduced per day, or about 400 billion kWh reduced per year.

The world consumes a total of about 20000 billion kWh of electricity every year.

The above actions on dryers and washing machines alone would cut down the world’s electricity consumption by about 1.5%.

1.5% reduction in energy use and perhaps CO2 emissions. A stunning feat, given that no one is losing any comfort anywhere along the way.

]]>http://www.eai.in/blog/2017/10/dryers-washing-machines-even-jerks-can-save-the-world.html/feed0What do I do about plastics? – Even Jerks Can Save the Worldhttp://www.eai.in/blog/2017/10/what-do-i-do-about-plastics-even-jerks-can-save-the-world.html
http://www.eai.in/blog/2017/10/what-do-i-do-about-plastics-even-jerks-can-save-the-world.html#commentsSun, 15 Oct 2017 08:05:17 +0000http://www.eai.in/?p=21734

Plastic is everywhere. A good number of disposable plastic items pollute our land and water, and we all wish to something about this. But what?

While you will hear numerous ideas of how to decrease plastic pollution, a good many of them are not practical.

For instance, I have heard so many idealistic suggestions on completely eliminating plastic from our life. I mean, it will not be easy for us to avoid plastic – try it for a day, and you will agree with me. But aren’t there alternatives we can use? For some applications, yes, but for many applications, there are few if any non-polluting materials available as alternatives.

Let’s get practical.

So, what indeed are the practical ways to decrease plastic pollution?

Here are some suggestions:

Segregation & Recycling – We need a good system to segregate waste so that a good portion of the plastic waste is brought back into circulation through recycling, instead of polluting land or marine environments.
Reduce & Reuse – While eliminating plastic from our lives is not possible (not at least in the short run), what is possible is to eliminate a few unnecessary uses of plastic, and reusing plastic items that can indeed be reused. Bring your own bag, reusing plastic bags and covers, saying no to an extra plastic cover if it is handed to you at retail outlets…

Selective Elimination – While not easy, governments and municipalities should consider how to reduce the amount of very thin plastic films (standalone or in the form of laminates) used, as these are the ones that are very difficult to collect/segregate and to recycle. Talk about mulch films etc; talk also about specific occasions such as parties when plastics can create most harm and thus trying to eliminate plastics in these alone can be of great use; also in products such as diapers and in sanitary napkins

Substitute select products / applications with easy, eco-friendly alternatives – A simple example of this is the use of metal or ceramic cups, instead of plastic cups, for coffee and other hot/cold beverages.

Less landfill and more of plastics to value – if the plastic has to finally go somewhere, let it not be to the landfill, where it lies forever as a pollutant; let it instead reach the incineration chamber where it can be burnt to generate power. This way, we are getting rid of the plastic and its pollution, and generating something useful at the same time.

Use of Biodegradable Plastics – It is possible that in the near future, some of the thin film disposable plastics used are replaced by biodegradable plastics, plastics that will degrade within a few months in natural or industrial composting environments. Mention that this might not be a very practical way for the time being though

I feel the above methods are practical, and most of them can be implemented either by individuals, communities or municipalities in the short term, without significantly affecting our current way of life.

How did we live before plastics were invented?

It was not long back that a person asked me at a conference: How did we live before plastics? Or perhaps the person meant “How could we have lived before plastics?”.

Either way, I liked the question.

One, because it is a question that few people actually think of. Two, because it is such a challenging question to answer!

Surely, humans lived on this planet before plastics were invented? They ought to have – because the first synthetic plastics came to market only around 1910. The first ever man-made plastic (from cellulose) was invented only in the 1860s. Humans have been around for tens of thousands of years technically, the species homo sapiens has been around for at least 200,000 years.

OK, I have made my point – we have been around for far longer than have been plastics. How did we live without them? Understanding this aspect will perhaps give us insights on how we could live with less plastics in future too?

Before I go on, I should make this distinction: This post is not about all plastics. For instance, it is not about engineering plastics that we find in our cars and computers – these plastics serve a different purpose, and result far less, if any, pollution in our land and oceans.

Specifically, the question I am posing is: How did we live without using the disposable plastic items that we today use in almost all walks of life?

Now, let me put on my thinking cap and try out my best answer.

How indeed did we live before plastics were invented?

We Used Alternatives

We used stuff that just satisfied our need instead of catering to our greed. Interestingly, nature has provided a lot many earth-friendly materials to lead a reasonably comfortable life with these materials alone:

We used paper for packaging things that did not require plastic in the first place

We used cloth bags and other civilized things for carrying most things around

Where fluid transportation was involved, we used metal containers.

A whole lot of cooking items and cutlery (plates, cups, forks and spoons and knives…) were also made of metal or other non plastic items such as glass, paper or even more natural things – for instance, where I live (South India), we still use banana leaves as our “plates” during many festivals and religious functions, and even at times, at weddings.

In order to protect items from being affected by moisture, we usually carried them or stored them in metal containers.

We Led a Different Lifestyle

Our lifestyles evolve based on the environment and constraints. If we had no plastics, we led a lifestyle that simply did not require plastics!

Most food was home cooked, so the concept of take-aways and the consequent need for plastic was not there.

Many of the cleaning items (including personal cleaning items such as nappies for kids), were made from paper or cloth, and the cloth items were washed and reused.

We did not have mobile phones (leave alone smartphones), so we needed that much less plastic for the phones themselves and for their covers.

We Were More Disciplined in Our Habits

When we have to make-do with less, we become disciplined. When we had no plastic, we had habits that were by default eco-friendly – be it:

Carrying our own bags for shopping

Reusing things instead of dumping them after every use

Keeping things safe from moisture instead of needing material to protect them from moisture

What I have provided above is only a sampling, but I guess if you think along these lines, you will be able to come up with a lot many more examples of how humans lived without in the pre-plastic era!

Of course, without plastic we could not do a whole lot of things more comfortably (carrying water in metal containers would have been a lot heavier for instance), but let’s just say that we just about managed to lead a decent, civilized life without plastics.

The bigger question of course is – Will we be able to live a life anymore without plastics?

What are your thoughts?

By the way, in my village, even today, folks live with very little plastic. A good amount of stuff gets packaged in paper; you will find hardly any plastic water bottles – water is stored and served mostly in metal containers. But then, their lifestyles are different – very different – from those of the urban folks.

Whether the lifestyles of these rural folk are better than those of the urban creatures like us is however a question whose answer really depends on who it is asked to!

Sure, we can follow many of the easy ideas shared in places like these; sure, we can make some difference. But whether we adults, with our current perspectives and practices can make a big enough difference to reduce the vast environmental harm we are producing is doubtful.

But I will tell you about critters who can make a real difference.

The KIDS!

Yes, the Kids!

When you look at the kids, you are looking at a clean slate.

Their brains can yet be wired differently. Their minds can yet be moulded differently. They can be programmed to do things in a more clean and sustainable manner.

Who knows, if the moulding and wiring happen in such a way that they can design, process and do things very differently from the way adults can, it can be world changing.

Seriously.

Spend some time every week telling the kids about environment and sustainability.

Kids, once they get convinced, develop it into a habit. And they talk and convince their friends to do it. Pretty soon, every kid in the town is doing it.

Of course, as every parent knows, it is not always easy to make kids sit next to you and listen to, especially if you happen to be their parent!

The challenge is hence to figure out ways by which we are able to imbibe in children concepts of sustainability in a way that is fun to them.

Fun does not mean games and other song&dance.

Fun could also be interesting videos, interactive content such as quizzes and entertaining stories.

All these are available all over the web. For free.

All that’s needed is a bit of attitude and a consequent motivation.

Start getting kids become aware of and involved in sustainable activities. You will find this a truly enriching, rewarding and satisfying work.

It has been pointed out any number of times that the smartest way to use less energy is not to forgo our comforts, but to ensure that we do not waste any energy unnecessarily.

Essentially, if we ensure that we are efficient in the use of energy, we can derive the same comforts and have the same lifestyle but by consuming far less energy.

One avenue that can be a critical driver for energy efficiency is intelligence – intelligence on when and how to optimize energy use.

This is where IT, IoT and distributed devices such as smartphones come in.

Because through a combination of the above, we can easily and efficiently manage our home energy consumption.

Essentially, through a combination of sensors, software and the Internet, you can control and manage your energy equipments in your home from wherever you are.

So, if you are in your room and wish to dim the light in your child’s room for 30 minutes, you can do so without getting out of your bed or chair.

While the amount of energy you save from the above example perhaps is quite small, you can easily visualize how you can extend this concept to save orders of magnitude higher energy from other processes.

So, what exactly are you waiting for?

]]>http://www.eai.in/blog/2017/10/use-it-to-dim-it-dammit-even-jerks-can-save-the-world.html/feed0Reuse – Even Jerks Can Save the Worldhttp://www.eai.in/blog/2017/10/reuse-even-jerks-can-save-the-world.html
http://www.eai.in/blog/2017/10/reuse-even-jerks-can-save-the-world.html#commentsSun, 15 Oct 2017 08:01:58 +0000http://www.eai.in/?p=21740We are not aristocrats. Or the pope. To use things or wear things just once and throw them away.

Reuse stuff to the extent possible.

Better for your environment. Even better for your pocket.

Wear stuff many, many times before you throw it into the dustbin. Use stuff many, many times before it too reaches the dustbin.

Sure, this may not be the stuff Amazon or Taobao or Flipkart might be telling you. They might want you to think that your life is not worth it if you do not buy the latest stuff – the latest iPhone, the latest shoes, the latest bag.

Sure, enjoy. Make your life worthwhile.

But surely you can enjoy responsibly?

Astonishingly, and sadly, a large proportion of things that reach the landfill could have been used for a much longer time, and many more times, by the original user.

Now, you might say that these will anyway be recycled.

Yes, to a certain extent you are correct.

But recycling is the next best option to reuse. Because recycling still requires energy and resources. While recycling a product consumes much less energy than producing that producing that product from scratch, reusing the product for a longer period implies that no energy at all is utilised for the extra duration or the extra number of times you use the product!

Besides being considered reckless, underutilization of things and the resulting over-buying leads to clutter in your house. It does this in my house. It does this in my friends’ and relatives’ house.

Unless you house follows different laws of physics and materials, it will clutter your house too.

Reuse stuff. Buy a bit less.

Go to bed a more satisfied man or woman.

And you will thank me for saving a packet.

]]>http://www.eai.in/blog/2017/10/reuse-even-jerks-can-save-the-world.html/feed0Those Freaking Chemicals Can Kill Youhttp://www.eai.in/blog/2017/10/those-freaking-chemicals-can-kill-you.html
http://www.eai.in/blog/2017/10/those-freaking-chemicals-can-kill-you.html#commentsSun, 15 Oct 2017 08:01:32 +0000http://www.eai.in/?p=21742Sure, there are all kinds of rumours about all kinds of things, including about stuff around you that’s poison.

I have heard many times that all plastics are toxic. I have been told even by well educated folks that if I kept drinking from a plastic bottle, there is a high chance I will get cancer.

But when I did independent research and spoke to many objective scientists, I found that, for most plastics, there’s little or no evidence that they contain toxins beyond the hazardous threshold. This does not exonerate plastics from toxicity, all it says that scientists have not found any evidence yet that use of most plastics can cause cancer.

So there’s surely fear mongering going on, by vested interests.

But that does not absolve all the plastics and other chemicals you use.

There are fairly authentic & genuine facts and studies that have proven the toxicity and other harmful effects in a whole range of household chemicals that we use every day.

A range of house cleaning chemicals could contain especially harmful materials.

The jury is still out on whether mosquito repellers are safe for humans or whether could harm humans along with the mosquitoes!

There are many more examples of commonly used daily chemicals that are quite toxic.

Don’t believe me?

Sure, go ahead. When you will you believe me? When you are just about dying?

Replacing at least select chemical items at home with natural and safe stuff is a great way to protect ourselves – even if you do not care two hoots for the environment!

]]>http://www.eai.in/blog/2017/10/those-freaking-chemicals-can-kill-you.html/feed0Rain Water Harvesting – Even Jerks Can Save the Worldhttp://www.eai.in/blog/2017/10/rain-water-harvesting-even-jerks-can-save-the-world.html
http://www.eai.in/blog/2017/10/rain-water-harvesting-even-jerks-can-save-the-world.html#commentsSun, 15 Oct 2017 08:00:06 +0000http://www.eai.in/?p=21745Take a bow to whoever originally thought up rain water harvesting.

What a simple idea that can make such a big difference!

Why let off water that can be used when you need it?

Rainwater harvesting systems are simple to implement, robust, and can help your house be water secure even during water crisis elsewhere.

This one time expense and effort can save tons and tons of water, and more important, give you water security if your household depends on groundwater at your location!

Sure, it might not just be you alone who benefits from rainwater harvesting your proximate local community could, but you can be a bit generous, can’t you!

]]>http://www.eai.in/blog/2017/10/rain-water-harvesting-even-jerks-can-save-the-world.html/feed0Cut Down Travel – Even Jerks Can Save the Worldhttp://www.eai.in/blog/2017/10/cut-down-travel-even-jerks-can-save-the-world.html
http://www.eai.in/blog/2017/10/cut-down-travel-even-jerks-can-save-the-world.html#commentsSun, 15 Oct 2017 07:59:14 +0000http://www.eai.in/?p=21747When I say “Cut down travel to reduce your Carbon footprint” many people look at me askance.

It is as if I were trampling on their most fundamental right.

Sure, you love to travel. It’s fun. And depriving you of travel is depriving you of something precious.

Life without travel – is it worth living? You ask me.

For jerks like me who are super happy sitting inside my home or office and being wedded to our desks, travel might not be a big deal.

But you are different, aren’t you? You are a travel-bug and would like to see and experience the world.

I am not going to deny you this pleasure!

What I meant by cutting down travel is not to cut down your holidays or your vacation, but to cut down, as much as possible, travel along congested roads to your office and meetings.

You will now agree how cutting down such travel is not exactly trampling on your freedom, but actually enhancing your pleasure.

Who wouldn’t want to sit in the comfort of home and do the same work instead of wasting a few horrible hours sitting in the middle of traffic or many, many hours stuck in an airport in a far off land!